Mail-box.



A. J. FOSTER.

MAIL BOX.

ABPLIGATION FILED NOV. 8, 1910.

1,047,401 Patented Dec. 17, 1912.

MODEL.

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FII STATES yPATENT OFFO.

ALVAI-I J'. FOSTER, 0F SYRACUSE, NEW YORK.

MAIL-BOX.

Application led November 8, 1910. Serial No. 591,248.

To all whom Lt may concern:

Be it known that I, ALvAi-i J. Fosrnn, o-f Syracuse, in the county ofOnondaga, in the State of New York, have invented new and usefulImprovements in Mail-Boxes, of which the following, taken in connectionwith the accompanying drawings, is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to certain improvements in mail boxes adaptedmore particularly for private use in the vestibules, halls and doors ofhouses, tenement blocks, office buildings and other places where privateletter boxes might be used.

One of the objects is to produce a light, stro-ng and durable lock boxof sheet metal with a minimum number of parts comprising a face-plateand box proper, capable of being easily and quickly assembled withoutthe use of bolts or screws.

Another object is to provide the box with a drop lid or closure for theexit opening and to attach to said lid or closure an ejector plateforming with the lid a pocket for the reception of the mail and at thesame time serving the treble purpose of concentrating the mail in thepocket, automatically opening the door when unlocked and ej ecting themail from the box onto the lid as the latter is forced to its extremeopen position, thereby throwing all of the mail into full view of therecipient and permitting it to be readily withdrawn from the lid.

A further object is to provide the lid with laterally projectinginturned marginal flanges projecting beyond the marginal edges of theopening for entirely concealing said opening when the lid is closed.

A still further object is to hinge the lid in such manner that whenopened, it will lie in a plane wholly below the lower edge of theopening so as to afford unobstructed view of the entire interior of thebox through such opening.

Other objects and uses relating to specific parts of the mail box willbe brought out in the following description.

In the drawings, Figures 1 and 2- are longitudinal vertical sectionalviews of a mail box embodying the various features of my invention, thelid and ejector being shown in their normal closed positions in Fig. 1and in their extreme open positions in Fig. 2 Figs. 3 and 4 are`horizontal transverse sectional views ofr Specification of LettersPatent.

Patented Dec. 17, 1912.

(Model.)

the same box taken respectively on lines 3 3 and 1-4 Fig. 1 Fig.v 5 is atransverse vertical sectional view of the lower portion of the box takenon line 5 5 Fig. 1 showing particularly the hinge connections for thelid and spring retaining plates for the glass in the sight opening. Fig.6 is a front elevation of the same letter box on a smaller scale.

As shown in the drawings, this mail box comprises a vertically elongatedrectangular box section 1 and a face plate Q covering the open side ofthe box `section 1 and provided with an inlet 3 and an exit opening 4the inlet opening being provided with an inwardly swinging closure 5while the exit opening 4 is provided with a drop lid or closure 6 havinga sight opening 7 in which is placed a sight glass 8- and name plate 8The lower end of the lid- 6 is secured by rivets or other suitablefastening means to a pair of inwardly projecting hinge sections 9 havingforwardly returned arms lO normally in a plane below the lower end ofthe exit opening fland mounted upon a hinge rod 11 the'latter having itsopposite ends mounted in fixed bearings or ears 12 which are secured toand project inwardly from the face plate Q below the exit opening 4These hinge plates or sections 9 are formed with slots l3 openinginwardly from the face plate 2- for receiving the portion of the faceplate at the lower edge of the exit opening and is of sufficient depthfrom front to rear to allow the lid 6 to rock from its normal verticalposition shown in Fig. 1 to nearly a horizontal position as shown inFig. 2 the lower sides of the slots or upper edges of the return arms l0forming limiting stops adapted to engage the inner face of the adjacentportion of the face plate 3 to limit the downward rocking movement ofthe lid to the position shown in Fig. Q and for this purpose thedistance between the upper edges of the return arms lO- and axis of thepivotal bolt 11 is substantially the same as the distance between saidaxis and inner face of the adjacent portion of the face plate 6 Theupper ends of the arms 10 are extended downwardly Somedistance belowthepvotal -bolt 11 for receiving an additional rod or pin 14.- which isalso spaced some distance apart from the rod 11 An ejector plate l5 ofspring sheet metal is secured at its normal lower end to the rods ll andM and is extended therefrom in the direction of length of and nearly tothe opposite end of the lid, leaving its normal upper end supported andfree to spring forwardly and rearwardly toward and from the lid. Thisejector plate 15- is spaced some distance apart from the lid 6 and isrigidly secured to the hinge sections 9 which in turn are also rigidlysecured to said lid and therefore the plate may be said to be rigidlyconnected to the lid ejector except for its resiliency or spring actionpreviously mentioned, the upper end of said ejector plate which iscomparatively thin being spring pressed under its own tension into arecess l5 and against the inner face of the back of the box section 1 soas to .allow letters and other mail matter which may be inserted throughthe inlet 3- to readily fall to the bottom of the ejector plate withoutliability of being caught in their descent by its upper edge.

The interior width of the front open side of the box section issubstantially the same as that of the exit opening lt while the lengthof said fixed section is considerably greater than the correspondinglength of said opening and when the box section 1 is placed in operativeposition, its open side registers exact-ly with the exit opening 4 inthe face plate Q while its upper and lower ends extend above and beneathsaid opening, the front edges of the box section 1 being in directcontact with the inner face of the face plate. In order that this boxsection 1 may be secured to the face plate without rivet-s, screws orbolts, said face plate is formed with integral inwardly projectinglianges or lugs 16 arranged in pairs one above the other at oppositesides and near the upper and lower ends of the opening lt said flangesor `lugs being formed with slots or apertures 17- for receiving suitablespring catches 18 These spring catches 18 are preferably integral withand formed fromy the sides of the box section 1 as more clearly shown inFigs. l, 2 and 3, by slitting said sides at 20 so as to form tongues,the free ends of which are bent inwardly as shown in Fig. 3 to enter theslots 18 and interlock with the inner edges thereof.

The ejector plate 15 is of nearly t-he same width as but slightly lessthan that of the exit opening 4 through which it is adapted to pass whenthe lid 6 is opened and for this purpose the distance between the axisof the pivotal axis of the bolt 11 and upper extremity of the ejectorplate is slightly less than the distance between said axis and upper endof the exit opening l When the lid is opened and the tension of thespring ejector relaxed as shown in Fig. 2 said lid and ejector aredisposed in planes diverging toward their free ends so that the distancebetween said free ends under such conditions is greater than thedistance between the' lid and back of the box section 1 when the lid isclosed. It is therefore evident that during the final clos'- ing of thelid, the ejector plate 15 is compressed or rather its upper end isspring pressed by its own tension against the back of the case section 1for the purpose previously described, the lid being held in its closedposition by a suitable lock 22 preferably engaging the upper edge of theopening lt is also evident that when the door is unlocked as forinstance in the operation of removing the mail, the ejector plate 15which is then under its own spring tension automatically opens the dooror lid and at the same time follows such open movement to eject any mailwhich may be interposed between said ejector plate and lid, said ejectorserving as a follower to carry the mail forward and to throw the sameflatwise down upon the open door from which position it may be readilyinspected and withdrawn by the operator, whereupon the door and ejectormay be returned to their normal positions and there held by means of thelock 2Qf which is preferably automatic.

The fact that the ejector plate 15 is of nearly the same width as thatof the interior of the box section 1 prevents any mail from being caughtor lodging between the edges of said ejector plate and box and at thesame time forms with the lid 6 a pocket open at the top for receivingthe mail and concentrating it on the bottom of the ejector plate.

The inner face of the sight glass 8 which is arranged in the opening 7is of slightly greater ar-ea than said opening and is spring pressedagainst the inner face of the adjacent portions of the lid 6 by springretaining arms 23 which are riveted or otherwise secured to the front ofthe lid, preferably at opposite ends of the sight opening as best seenin Fig. 5 leaving their free ends free to yield inwardly to permit theremoval or replacement of the glass S when necessary, or for inserting aname plate.

The closure 5 for the inlet 3 is preferably hinged at 25 to a suitablebracket 26- just above the opening and in such manner as to normallyfall to its `closed position and at the same time be free to swinginwardly.

The lower side of the opening 3 is provided with an inwardly projectingledge 27n of sufiicient depth rearwardly to prevent maliciousinterference with the inclosed mail or interior mechanism by theinsertion of the hand or any other instrument.

The hinge sections 9 and ears -12- to which they are pivoted are locatedat the extreme sides of the lid and ejector plate to allow the mail toreadily fall between them onto the bottom of said plate but it isclearly evident that if any mail should lodge on any of these parts, itwill not aect the opening operation of the lid and ejector nor interferein any way with the removal of the mail because the hinge sections movewith the lid and ejector, the lower end of the latter being extendedforwardly and upwardly at the front side of the plates -11- and 14,-- toobviate any liability of the lower edges of letters and similar mailmatter being caught between the said ejector plate and adjacent portionof the face plate Q It will be observed that when the lid is opened toits extreme position, the lower or inner edge thereof drops somedistance below the lower edge of the exit opening 4fbut is preventedfrom engaging and marring the front face of the face plate -2- by reasonof the engagement of the upper edges of the return extensions -10- ofthe hinge sections -9- with the inner faces of the adjacent portions ofthe face plate, the lid being secured to the hinge sections -9- in suchmanner as to accomplish this result, otherwise the contact of the loweredge of the lid might mar the finish on the front face of the face platewhich marring effect would be visible when the door is closed.

The operation of my invention will now be readily understood uponreference to the foregoing description and the accompanying drawings andalthough the mechanism shown and described is preferable, it is evidentthat the various features may be somewhat modiied without departing fromthe spirit of this invention.

That I claim is:

1. A letter box comprising a rectangular receptacle embodying anintegral back, side walls and end walls, a face or front plate securedto the receptacle and provided with an exit opening, inwardly-projectinglugs carried by said face plate below and at each side of the exitopening, a hinge rod mounted in said lugs, a swinging lid for said exitopening, hinge-sections secured at one end to the inner face of theswinging lid and having return arms extending through the exit openingand connected to said hingerod, said hinge-sections having slots openinginwardly to receive the face plate at the lower end of the exit opening,extensions carried by the pivoted ends of the return arms, a rod mountedin said extensions, and an ejector plate hung at its lower end on saidrods and of a width to move freely through said exit opening, saidejector plate curved forwardly at its lower end to form a mail receivingpocket and having its free end curved rearwardly to lie in a recessprovided therefor in the back wall of the receptacle, said ejector platebeing of spring material and held under tension by the lid when thelatter is in closed position.

2. A letter box having relatively fixed front and back plates, the frontplate being provided with a mail inlet and a mail outlet below theinlet, a rocking sup-port pivoted within the box below the outlet, adrop lid and an ejector plate both having their lower ends rigidlysecured to said rocking member at opposite sides of its pivot andextending toward the inlet in diverging planes, the upper end of theejector plate extending nearly to the plane of the top of the opening,and spring pressed against the back of the box when the lid is closed.

3. A letter box having a relatively fixed front plate provided with amail inlet and a mail outlet below the inlet, the outlet extending froma point some distance above the bottom of the box, a rocking framepivotally mounted on the inside of the front plate below the opening, adrop lid for the outlet having its lower end rigidly secured to saidframe at one side of its pivot, an ejector plate of spring sheet metalhaving its lower end rigidly secured to said frame at the opposite sideof its pivot and extending upwardly therefrom nearly to the upper end ofthe lid, the width of the ejector plate being nearly equal to thetransverse width of the outlet, the upper ends of the lid and ejectorplate being normally spaced apart a distance greater than the distancebetween the front face of the plate and back of the box whereby theupper end of the ejector plate will be spring pressed against the backof the box when the lid is closed.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand on this 28th day ofSeptember 1910.

ALVAH J. FOSTER.

Witnesses:

H. E. CHASE, E. S. SPEARING.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. C.

